The Food and Drug Administration’s new chief counsel resigned from her position “effective immediately” after just two days on the job ami...
The Food and Drug Administration’s new chief counsel resigned from her position “effective immediately” after just two days on the job amid scrutiny of her record on abortion and vaccines, the agency said Thursday morning.
The resignation was due in large part to pushback from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, a White House source familiar with the matter told The Daily Wire. The Missouri senator publicized concerns about Hilary Perkins’ past defense of abortion drugs, and a brief she had signed onto expressing support for President Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine mandates, which said objections to COVID mandates “verge on the conspiratorial.”
A source familiar with the conversations between Hawley and the White House told The Daily Wire that the senator said last night he would vote no on Makary if Perkins didn’t resign. Perkins’ resignation came the next morning.
“A Biden abortion lawyer who also defended Biden’s offensive and outrageous vaccine mandates has no business working in the Trump Administration,” Hawley told The Daily Wire. “I’m glad to see she was removed from that position.”
“It’s critical that the Trump Administration is staffed with individuals who are committed to carrying out President Trump’s pro-life agenda,” he added. “That’s true for this position and a whole host of others.”
Multiple publications reported this week that Perkins, a former Justice Department lawyer, was joining the FDA as its chief counsel at the express request of Marty Makary, the president’s nominee to lead the FDA. Perkins had even added the new role to her LinkedIn profile, which stated she was the FDA’s chief counsel as of Wednesday evening.
(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Her tenure was short lived, however. Both the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services deal heavily with how the United States handles abortions, unborn babies, abortion drugs, and more — meaning that pro-life lawmakers and activists have a vested interest in keeping an eye on FDA and HHS appointments. Hawley grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his nomination process to ensure that Kennedy would not push abortion policy, and would protect life.
Just after midnight last night, the Missouri senator also shared that his team had dug up a brief dealing with the vaccine mandates, one that Perkins had signed onto.
That brief praised Biden’s orders mandating vaccines, saying they “strike a careful balance between the federal government’s compelling interest in stemming the spread of COVID-19 and certain individuals’ medical or religious reasons for declining vaccination.”
Hawley had already aired his concerns about Perkins’ record on abortion, saying in an X post that he couldn’t “understand why Marty Makary would want someone who used the government to IMPOSE vaccines on millions of Americans and served as a Biden abortion lawyer to be his chief counsel.”
“It calls into question his judgment,” the senator said. “These positions are – obviously – totally out of line with President Trump.”
A source close to the senator told The Daily Wire that Hawley is concerned that the Biden administration’s mifepristone rules completely undermine the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, and that the senator is worried the administration is waffling on handling the matter of abortion drugs.
Neither the FDA nor HHS responded to The Daily Wire’s requests for comment on Perkins and her record on Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning, the FDA’s X account announced her departure: “Hilary K. Perkins has resigned from her position as Chief Counsel of FDA, effectively immediately.”
A source familiar with her promotion and resignation told The Daily Wire that Perkins was a career Justice Department attorney whom Makary viewed as reliable and competent. Markary passed a key committee vote on Thursday morning, and now heads to a full Senate vote on his nomination to head FDA.
“I am pleased to see that Dr. Makary has reconsidered his decision to make this Biden abortion lawyer the top counsel at FDA,” Hawley said after the resignation was announced.